diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/debug/apply_transforms.go b/pkg/skaffold/debug/apply_transforms.go
index 28aaed9b835..b875880a384 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/debug/apply_transforms.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/debug/apply_transforms.go
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ func retrieveImageConfiguration(ctx context.Context, artifact *graph.Artifact, i
 	// need to duplicate slices as apiClient caches requests
 	return ImageConfiguration{
 		Artifact:   artifact.ImageName,
+		Author:     manifest.Author,
 		Env:        envAsMap(config.Env),
 		Entrypoint: dupArray(config.Entrypoint),
 		Arguments:  dupArray(config.Cmd),
diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform.go b/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform.go
index f47b17976bd..547c3a3d293 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform.go
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ type ImageConfiguration struct {
 	// Artifact is the corresponding Artifact's image name (`pkg/skaffold/build.Artifact.ImageName`)
 	Artifact string
 
+	Author     string
 	Labels     map[string]string
 	Env        map[string]string
 	Entrypoint []string
diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go.go b/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go.go
index c85c8b0bcf6..e888bb75063 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go.go
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ func (t dlvTransformer) IsApplicable(config ImageConfiguration) bool {
 			return true
 		}
 	}
+	// Detect ko image by author, see https://github.com/google/ko/blob/v0.8.3/pkg/build/gobuild.go#L610
+	if config.Author == "github.com/google/ko" {
+		log.Entry(context.TODO()).Infof("Artifact %q has Go runtime: has author %q", config.Artifact, config.Author)
+		return true
+	}
 
 	// FIXME: as there is currently no way to identify a buildpacks-produced image as holding a Go binary,
 	// nor to cause certain environment variables to be defined in the resulting image, look at the image's
diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go_test.go b/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go_test.go
index 2eaf37973fe..8d5cc20f694 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go_test.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/debug/transform_go_test.go
@@ -97,6 +97,11 @@ func TestDlvTransformer_IsApplicable(t *testing.T) {
 			launcher:    "launcher",
 			result:      true,
 		},
+		{
+			description: "ko author",
+			source:      ImageConfiguration{Author: "github.com/google/ko"},
+			result:      true,
+		},
 		{
 			description: "entrypoint /bin/sh",
 			source:      ImageConfiguration{Entrypoint: []string{"/bin/sh"}},